A comprehensive digital marketing specialist resume guide

A dream job just opened up.

They asked for your resume and...

You panicked. You just want to show them that there’s no one better than you out there.

So you wrote how you single handedly grew web traffic to over 100k per month, about your Facebook ads experience and certifications.

Then, you get the mail “We’re Sorry…”

But you were perfect. What happened? Toby, with fewer skills and experience than you, got the job...

You know what really happened though?

Behind the scenes there was a swamped recruiter. After reviewing 100s of bad applications they glanced at your resume, read your professional summary, though “seems a bit vague” and tossed your resume.

They never even looked at your experience.

That’s one of many unspoken rules that we are going to talk about in this guide.

Caution: Life changing advice ahead!

Fortunately, we (and the experts we talked to) have stepped on plenty of those resume landmines. This guide will share all of that advice with you so you can get your next digital marketing specialist job.

Here’s what you’ll learn here:

 ✔ How to choose the right resume layout to match your experience

 ✔ What two critical things make your resume header stand out

 ✔ The question your resume summary needs to answer

 ✔ What tricks make your digital marketing experience powerful

 ✔ Which skills and certifications you should emphasize on your resume

We’ll start by looking at a digital marketing specialist resume sample.

Digital marketing specialist resume sample

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Start by choosing the right resume layout

There are two directions to go here.

If you’re a digital marketer with years of work experience, a reverse chronological resume is ideal. This layout puts your work experience and accomplishments front and center.

But if you are either:

1. An experienced marketer with diverse experience
2. Or, have very less experience with a ton of side projects, freelance work, etc.

Then you can’t simply use a reverse chronological resume layout.

It’ll be messy, hard, and frustrating for a recruiter to find relevant information in just a few seconds.

They are most likely to move on to the next resume and reject yours.

Nothing beats a hybrid resume if you have too much to show.

How Mark landed a job as a digital marketing specialist with no experience

Mark has no formal marketing education, nor have any professional experience. He’s only worked on a couple of marketing projects during his university.

When Mark shared his side of the story he told us “My hiring manager rejected nearly all candidates (some maybe better than me) that applied. I was later told during my interview that my resume stands out from nearly every other applicant. And, I was shocked! All I did was just to use the template provided by Enhancv. Never thought it would change my life.”  

Unknowingly, Mark ended up selecting a resume layout that was clean, nicely designed an aesthetically beautiful.

Hiring manager was able to find Mark’s skills in building landing pages using Leadpages and saw that he had an Inbound Marketing certification - all because of the right resume layout, designed intentionally to highlight the right sections.

Don’t miss your chance to catch a marketing director’s attention

As a marketer you already know how everything you put on a digital screen has to mark an impact or it doesn’t deserve a place at all.

Your goal should be to do the same with your resume too!

Resume headers are practically invisible if they have a lot of irrelevant information, or are mundane.

Catching their eye starts with your resume header.

Besides the obvious things (include your email and phone number, keep it professional, you know the drill) there are two elements that really make the difference for digital marketers:

1. Certifications
2. Links

Certifications show you’ve got skills and are self-motivated enough to get them certified right off the bat.

Then, links show that you’re a serious professional engaged in the digital marketing world.

In other words, include some professional links. This could be LinkedIn, Quora, Reddit, a personal website, anywhere you can show a passion and interest for digital marketing.

As a general rule of writing a digital marketing resume:

• Bad resume headers will list nothing more than your identity
• Average resume headers will have a Linkedin profile
• Good resume headers will show them your personality and will make you memorable

The goal here is to make sure that a hiring manager leaves this section after learning something impactful about you.

If that doesn’t happen, you’ve failed as a marketer to convince them that you’re good.

How to write an effective digital marketing specialist resume summary

Simon really nails it there. Your summary should be like a quick movie trailer for the rest of your resume. But it should also be a clear answer to the biggest question a hiring manager has “why should I hire you?”

Remember, your resume summary isn’t just a general statement, it should be written directly for that hiring manager. Be specific, confident, and show that you can get the results they want.

Have a look at these two examples to see what we mean:

Work experience is at the core of a digital marketing specialist resume, how should you include it?

For digital marketing specialists, it’s not really about the years of experience.

Marketing directors and hiring managers want to see that you have the right experience for the position.

Beyond that, they want to know you’ve gotten results.

Ideally, your resume experience will take what you say in your resume summary and will expand on it with results, innovation and proud achievements.

In short, your experience section should be saying “I didn’t just spend the last 7 months working at my last role doing nothing. I was innovative, proactive, and a true achiever. I am the go-getter that your marketing team really needs!”

Have a look at these two examples to see what we mean:

Does a digital marketing specialist resume need an education section?

Marketing changes at a very high pace. While your formal education isn’t going to prepare you for that, when you resume has to go through multiple gatekeepers, software, and strong competition - listing that education could be a deciding factor.

Some organizations exclusively hire from Tier 1 institutes while others only hire marketers that have a degree in management. Which means that listing your education becomes extremely important.

Make sure you list the following your Education section:

1. Your marketing degree or related programs
2. Your GPA (only if it is greater than 3.2)
3. Year of graduation
4. Your specialization

Which digital marketing skills should your resume include?

When you’re asking this question, the key word to remember is “specialist”.

Whether you’re looking to show a deep specialization in a single area or are going for more of a T-shaped marketer profile, you need to highlight the skills you specialize in within your resume.

Depending on your specialization, here are some skills you’ll want to consider:

Just remember, while hard skills can be learned, it’s much more difficult to pick up soft skills. That’s why many hiring managers emphasize the importance of soft skills like creativity, independence, and communication as cornerstones of a great digital marketer.

How to include your certifications on your resume

As Clay makes clear, Good (and other) certifications are a big deal on a digital marketing specialist resume. Even if you have some work experience with that same area, getting a certification shows employers you go the extra mile.

While which certifications have the greatest impact will depend on your specialization, these are the top 10 across all digital marketing.

Our list of the top tricks for the best digital marketing specialist resume

Ultimately, all of our advice boils down to these critical points:

1. Demonstrate deep knowledge in one or two areas of digital marketing.
2. Use certifications to demonstrate your experience, even in your resume header.
3. Make sure your summary clearly explains why they should hire you.
4. Show you have the energy, drive, and curiosity to keep up with everything happening in digital marketing.